1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to disposable laboratory devices and, more specifically, to a disposable laboratory hood, a still air enclosure or a dead air box to contain selected chemicals or biological material while performing laboratory procedures.
2. State of the Art
In a laboratory setting, particular laboratory procedures may involve use of a number of different chemical and biological materials that may need to be controlled. Steps are typically taken to protect against release of the involved materials to the atmosphere or to control them to avoid contaminating structures and/or laboratory workers. Of course, it may also be desirable to closely contain materials prepared for certain experiments so they may remain uncontaminated and in a protected environment and inhibit their accidental release into the surrounding area.
In order to provide a containment, it is understood that small laboratory work stations have been proposed. Such may be made out of a variety of cleanable or rigid materials including, for example, stainless steel, so that laboratory procedures may be performed in a relatively sterile, cleanable and protected area.
In other cases, fume hoods have been devised including, for example, a fume hood that is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,420 (Poblete et al.). Alternative fume hood configurations may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,022 (Baltinger et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,128 (Morikawa et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,281 (Parks et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,718 (Grow et al.). The known fume hoods, as well as other laboratory work stations, are believed to be susceptible to contamination. In such an event, disposal is a problem.
There is a need for a laboratory hood, "still air enclosure" or "dead air box" which is disposable yet at the same time is essentially impervious to selected chemical and biological materials.